Readers,
This is a fascinating story about
Thomas of Lancaster and the persons
and events that played an important part in his
life in a very turbulent time.
But like
all fascinating stories, it is not told
in two minutes. It is a real longread.
My advice to my you:
READ IT LIKE A BOOK!
Don’t read all chapters at one time,
because you will be overwhelmed, unless
you are totally fascinated.

Or when you are pressed with time, with time, read the Epilogue,

which gives my final opinion about Thomas of Lancaster and a

summary of this fascinating story….

To understand the political situation
in the early fourteenth century, especially
chapter one, four and five are important.
Chapters six describes the outbreak of the
war between Thomas and his cousin
the King, the chapters seven and eight the
dramatic end.
Chapters nine and ten, what happened
thereafter.

And I end with the Epilogue, giving my final opinion

about the life and activitities of Thomas of Lancaster.

Read all the Chapters with care and attention and you
will enter the Medieval world…..

Readers,
This is a fascinating story about
Thomas of Lancaster and the persons
and events that played an important part in his
life in a very turbulent time.
But like
all fascinating stories, it is not told
in two minutes. It is a real longread.
My advice to my you:
READ IT LIKE A BOOK!
Don’t read all chapters at one time,
because you will be overwhelmed, unless
you are totally fascinated.

Or when you are pressed with time, with time, read the Epilogue,

which gives my final opinion about Thomas of Lancaster and a

summary of this fascinating story….

To understand the political situation
in the early fourteenth century, especially
chapter one, four and five are important.
Chapters six describes the outbreak of the
war between Thomas and his cousin
the King, the chapters seven and eight the
dramatic end.
Chapters nine and ten, what happened
thereafter.

And I end with the Epilogue, giving my final opinion

about the life and activitities of Thomas of Lancaster.

Read all the Chapters with care and attention and you
will enter the Medieval world…..

Edward II’s coronation oath: translation

Sire, will you grant and keep and by your oath confirm to the people of England the laws and customs given to them by the previous just and god-fearing kings, your ancestors, and especially the laws, customs, and liberties granted to the clergy and people by the glorious king, the sainted Edward, your predecessor? I grant and promise them. Sire, will you in all your judgments, so far as in you lies, preserve to God and Holy Church, and to the people and clergy, entire peace and concord before God? I will preserve them.Sire, will you, so far as in you lies, cause justice to be rendered rightly, impartially, and wisely, in compassion and in truth? I will do so. Sire, do you grant to be held and observed the just laws and customs that the community of your realm shall determine, and will you, so far as in you lies, defend and strengthen them to the honour of God? I grant and promise them.

A post about some of the grandchildren of Henry, earl of Lancaster(1280/81 – 22 September 1345), who was Edward II’s first cousin, Isabella of France’s uncle, Earl Thomas’s younger brother and heir,Blanche of Artois’s son, grandson and nephew of kings of England, great-grandson, brother-in-law and uncle of kings of France, half-brother of the queen of Navarre, and also descended from kings of Castile, Aragon and Germany and the Holy Roman and Byzantine emperors.

Today is the 696th anniversary of the death of Piers Gaveston, run through with a sword and beheaded at Blacklow Hill, Warwickshire, on 19 June 1312.The story of Piers’ death – abducted from the earl of Pembroke’s custody by the earl of Warwick and killed in the presence of the earls of Lancaster, Hereford and Arundel – has been told so often I’m not going to bother repeating it here. Instead, I’ll look at some lesser-known aspects of the whole sordid business.

This is my translation of the charges against Hugh Despenser the Younger at his trial in Hereford on 24 November 1326, which are printed in the original Anglo-Norman in G. A. Holmes’ ‘Judgement on the Younger Despenser, 1326’ (English Historical Review, 70, 1955). Investigating the accuracy of the charges would be a major undertaking, and although some of them are certainly true, some are utterly ludicrous. May McKisack (The Fourteenth Century1307-1399) calls the charges “an ingenious tissue of fact and fiction,” while Roy Martin Haines (in his biography King Edward II) points out that “it is an ingenious document, another piece of propaganda that puts the blame for all the ills of the reign on one man and his father,” ignoring – for the time being, at least – Edward II’s own manifold failings and that the earl of Lancaster and his followers were in armed rebellion against their king in 1322, and in treasonous correspondence with Robert Bruce to boot. The original text begins Hughe le despenser en parlement nostre seignur le Roi Edward qui ore est tenu a Westmonstre Lan de son regne xvme…

The Early Years

The exact date of Hugh’s birth is not known but it was most likely between 1286 and 1290. He was the eldest son of Hugh Despenser (the elder) who was the son of another Hugh (the even elder) who fought alongside Simon de Montfort against Henry III during the Baron’s war of 1265. He was killed by Roger de Mortimer (grandfather of the Roger de Mortimer who became Queen Isabella’s lover and deposed Edward III) at the Battle of Evesham, thereby starting a feud between the Despensers and the Mortimers which was to have deadly echoes decades later. His mother was Isabelle de Beauchamp, the daughter and sister of two of the Earls of Warwick, so he was certainly well connected.

Today, or perhaps yesterday, is the 700th anniversary of Piers Gaveston’s funeral. Here’s a post about it.Piers Gaveston, earl of Cornwall, was killed at Blacklow Hill in Warwickshire on 19 June 1312. A group of Dominican friars from Oxford came across the body – presumably not by accident, as the Dominicans were Edward II’s favourite order and the king’s fervent supporters, and it would seem a bit of a coincidence if they of all people just happened to find Piers’ body – and took it to their house at Oxford. They embalmed Piers’ body, and sewed his head back on (he had been murdered by being run through with a sword, then his head was struck off).

Seal of Henry of Lancaster from the Barons’ Letter, 1301, which he signed as Henricus de Lancastre, Dominus de Munemue (Henry of Lancaster, Lord of Monmouth). His shield couche shows the armorial of Plantagenet differenced by a bend azure (see below)